Mis-statement Made By 'Robert A. M. Stephens'?

From: Bob Soetebier <bikebob@mo.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 00:10:34 -0600 (CST)
Fwd Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 10:25:09 -0500
Subject: Mis-statement Made By 'Robert A. M. Stephens'?
I received the following e-mail (which I have anonymized)...
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Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 20:00:52 -0500
From: [xxxxxxxx]
To: bikebob <bikebob@mo.net>
Subject: Another Hoa(gs)?
Dear B-Bob--
I think you will want to check out the following URL v-e-r-y
carefully.
http://www.sightings.com/ufo2/STS48.htm
Especially go down about 2/3 of the page and check out the
question Peter Gersten poses to Robert S.
Then scrutinize the page in question.
http://www.lunaranomalies.com/czarnik.htm
[....]
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...and I did go and check out the articles at both of the
referenced URLs. I will ONLY comment on the following
misstatement made by one 'Robert A. M. Stephens' in the article
found at this URL...
http://www.sightings.com/ufo2/STS48.htm
...here is that statement:
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The moon is a stationary stellar body. It does not rotate
on its axis as Earth. It revolves around the Earth, in a
stationary position, (another words, it keeps its 'face'
pointed at us at all times).
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It was immediately obvious to me that the above statement was
in error. The earth's moon most certainly DOES "rotate" on its
axis! As proof of that, here is a pertinent paragraph (about the
earth's moon) taken directly from page 6195 of the 1959 edition
of the "Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia", Vol.
17. {I would suspect that the Moon's orbital mechanics have not
significantly changed in the interim years.} :
The moon completes a rotation about the earth in almost the same
period of time that it takes to complete a revolution about its
own axis. As a result a portion comprising about one half of the
moon's surface is never turned toward the earth. If the moon's
motions were entirely regular, the "dark side of the moon" would
comprise a full half of its surface, but small irregularities in
the motions expose an additional 9 percent of the surface. The
irregularities, called 'librations', arise from a difference in
the moon's periods of rotation and revolution and a difference
between the planes of rotation and revolution.
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Others may decide to further investigate other claims made by
Mr. Stephens. Personally, that is something that I do NOT
intend to get "in the middle of".
If any of you do have anything further to add along those lines,
please do NOT send them to me asking ME to send them along to
others. If you want your comments/information passed along to
others, then please send them DIRECTLY to them. (If you wish,
you may "Cc" me, too.)
Take care,
Bob Soetebier
St. Louis County, Missouri